One of the things I've decided to do this past month was to make myself acquainted with the open source program Blender. I've read a few things on how it is powerful enough and feature heavy to be comparible to the likes of Autodesk Maya and Cinema 4d without the financial barrier of licensing it for professional use. This could be a handy tool to have when creating certain motion graphics for smaller production companies who may find the resources for true 3D modelling outside of their budget.The video below is my first animation with Blender after some tutorials on the ins and outs of the program. I've used it along with Photoshop and After Effects to create everything in the animation from scratch; models, materials, and all.

Click to see it on Vimeo

While there is much fun to be had using After Effects to bring photos or videos to life, there's something very liberating about casting the stock photography websites aside and creating every single asset used inside an animation. Achieving true 3D without the need for 3rd party plugins or workarounds to "fake" the look. While After Effects has recently developed a "raytraced" render engine, it has a long way to go before it can be considered practical. I would recommend Blender as an idea to explore for creatives who may want to do more and exceed the limitations of the software at their disposal.While I'm already a huge fan of open source communities and what they stand for, I was impressed with the amount of features packed into this program; Sculpting tools, node based compositing, character rigging. there are so many things that I'd like to explore in greater depth. My only disappointment were the glitches currently present in their rigid/soft body physics engines and particle systems. In order to work around these glitches, the flow of the red blood cells in my animation was done a different way than I had originally intended. But that probably won't always be the case. From what I read, the physics engine is relatively new and the program is constantly improving with every update.It's definitely worth at least trying out, and if you like it consider contributing. These guys are creating something outstanding without any thought of a profit. If society were to take it upon themselves to support more business models like this, the world would be a much better place.

The reel is now complete and I've also added links to several videos to form a short portfolio. I'm excited to see what projects this year will bring! Enjoy:

Cut on Adobe Premiere Pro with original animations using After Effects, Trapcode, and Photoshop. This reel also used stock several transitions and templates that I de-constructed to enhance the flow. Here is the attribution list.